$100 in 1923 is worth $169 in 1958,
because prices increased 69.0% over that period, an average of
1.51% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$169
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
69.0%
Average inflation rate
1.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$169
Price difference ($100 base)
$69.01
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1923 → 1958
$169
$100 in 1958 → 1923
$59.17
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1958
Between 1923 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 69.0%, which works out to an average of
1.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1958: the 1923 dollar
lost 40.8% of its purchasing power over
these 35 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.8% in 1923, the first increase since 1920 and a sign
the postwar deflation had run its course; the economy settled into the
steadier growth that defined much of the rest of the decade. The year’s
biggest shock was political rather than economic: Warren Harding died August
2 in San Francisco while returning from a trip to Alaska, and Vice President
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in the next day at his family’s farmhouse in
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, administered the oath of office by his own father,
a notary public, by lamplight. Coolidge would go on to preside over the low,
stable inflation of the “Roaring Twenties.” The contrast with Germany that
year was stark. The Weimar Republic’s currency collapse reached its peak in
November 1923, with prices doubling every few days and a loaf of bread
costing billions of marks; Germany introduced a new currency, the
Rentenmark, that month to halt the spiral. U.S. consumer prices, by
comparison, had moved in single digits or held flat every year since 1921, a
gap that shaped how American economists would later think about what made
the postwar inflation of Europe so different from the mild swings at home.
First-class postage stayed at 2 cents.
Every 1923 amount converts to 1958 at the same ratio, 1.69: $1,000 becomes
$1,690, and $10,000 becomes $16,901.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.69
$5.00
$8.45
$10.00
$16.90
$20.00
$33.80
$50.00
$84.50
$100
$169
$500
$845
$1,000
$1,690
$5,000
$8,450
$10,000
$16,901
$100,000
$169,006
$1,000,000
$1,690,058
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1958
Between 1923 and 1958, food rose the most, up 96.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 64.6%, against 69.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.51%
$169
Food
1.94%
$196
Apparel
1.43%
$165
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1923: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1923 to 1958
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1958 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$169
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $85.96 by
1941, on its way to $169 in 1958; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1958
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $169; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1958: $100 is worth $169 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1958/